Fallout from Sierra Layoffs Continues

Sierra On-Line's decision to abruptly shut down four studios and lay off some one hundred to two hundred employees has sent ominous shockwaves throughout the industry.

"I've had more phone calls from angry and depressed comrades in the last few days than in the whole time I've had anything to do with Sierra," said one source, a former employee of Sierra.

"The one thing I can tell you is that there was no notice," the source continued. "The people involved found out 15 minutes before the press did."

Another former employee, who also asked not to be named, described the scene at Synergistic, one of the affected divisions.

"The Sierra Sports Northwest group was called to a meeting at 10:00am on Monday the 22nd," the former employee told IGN. "[The meeting] took about five to eight minutes. Nervously we were told of Sierra cutbacks etc. Then names were read off a list of who was to be laid off. The list was quite a bit longer that anyone would of guessed! Some jaws dropped."

The source went on to say that while the team had been warned of cutbacks about a month ago, they understood that these cutbacks wouldn't affect Football Pro 2000. They also didn't realize the cutbacks were going to be as extensive as they turned out to be. But according to the source, everyone connected to the Football project was let go.

"They proceeded to file out quietly, looking like a bomb had dropped," the source said. "The survivors (eight or ten) were still in the meeting room looking towards the door in as much shock as the recently jobless.

The source said that the Football Pro 2000 project was good as dead--that the survivors were at work on an unrelated project.

"Let's just say if there is to be a Football project it won't involve a single person that has ever worked on it before, most likely," the source told us. "In other words I'd say it's as dead a doornail right now."

A similar tale was told at Yosemite Entertainment, where another ex-employee who asked not to be named described a similar meeting.

"Yesterday Sierra--Havas--whatever announced to us and the world that the Yosemite Entertainment division was being closed," this source told Voodoo Extreme, an IGN affiliate. "They then proceeded to read a list of names to go to a (much smaller) 'second meeting' upstairs. The people upstairs were told that they would be offered jobs in the Bellevue office. Everyone else was basically laid off on the spot. Please be out by noon, turn in your keys, etc."

This source said that of the Yosemite projects, Babylon 5 and Middle Earth would be continued, and some members of those teams were offered new jobs.

"A handful of stars (five to ten?) were snagged from other projects, but otherwise if you weren't on one of these you were toast," the source told Voodoo Extreme. "Not everyone from the above two projects was offered a job either. Babylon 5 lost four of eleven programmers and two of five artists."

However the Internet has provided a forum for the affected employees to band together and exchange condolences, trade job leads, and in some cases, get back in touch with former comrades who can no longer be reached at their old phone numbers or email addresses.

In fact, one former employee specifically set up a forum for ex-Sierrans to use as a message board.

He explained:

"Yesterday I lost more than my job, I lost most of my good friends," said William Shockley, posting on the new forum. "Some I've known for only a few years and others I've know for over nine. As we all make our own discussion and get on with our lives, the truth is that we'll probably never see each other again. These are people I've spent most of the last decade with and now it's all over."

For many, the closure of the Oakhurst, Ca. facility of Yosemite Entertainment was especially poignant, since this was the original home of Sierra On-Line--one of the oldest game companies around--and the many great games it made over the years. Its end was marked with sadness--what one former employee called the "end of an era".